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STATE OF LOUISIANA. 



SPEECH 



OF- 



HOIST. J. E. WEST, 

OF LOUISIANA, 



UNITED STATES SENATE, 



APRIL 15, 1S74. 




WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 

1874. 






V:.,.^ 



SPEECH 

OF 

HO^T. J. R. WEST 



The Senate haAinj: under consideration the bill (S. No. 446) to restore the rights 
•of the State of Louisiaua — 

Mr. WEST said : 

Mr. Pkpsident : What is termed tlie Louisiana question lias been 
a prolific source of agitatiou before Congress and before the country 
ever since the presidential election of 1872. It may be expected 
that a renewal of the discussion of this question by the only repre- 
sentative in this body that that State is permitted to have will be 
undertaken with a view either to denounce the opponents of the 
cause which he maintains and extol the merits of those who act with 
him in its support, or with the other purpose of replying seriatim to 
all the arguments that liave been adduced in favor of setting aside 
the government now existing in that State. 

Until I am compelled to do so, I shall speak in no unkind terms- of 
the men who have engaged in the outrages that have been perpe- 
trated of late years in Louisiana. Others may feel warranted in de- 
nouncing them in terms that are not only painful to me to listen to, 
Ijut would he more painful to me to proclaim. I shall therefore not 
seek to vindicate one class of the citizens of Louisiana at the expense 
of the shame and exposure of the other. I shall deal to some extent 
with a class of politicians who come up here and represent to the 
Congress of the United States that they are " the peoiile of Louisi- 
ana." I will discuss their claims to be considered our people. 

I am honored by a representative positicni of both classes here. I 
shall speak, therefore, in no unnecessary ,unkindness of the class to 
whom I am politically opposed ; nor shall I claim anything more for 
the pai'ty friends now controling the government in my State than 
the credit to which they are entitled for the ettbrts made by them 
since their incoming to power to retrieve past errors and alleviate 
the burdens which distress her people. 

In replying to the arguments so far made in favor of congressional 
interference, I shall confine myself to one proposition to-day, and that 
is, that all the informati<ra of which the Senate is in possession goes 
to the form of the election held in November, 1872, and does not relate 
to the fact. Until yesterday, by the Senator from New Jersey, [Mr. 
Frelixgiiuysen,] the issue' had never been made in this Chamber 
and in Congress upon the rights of the voters, on the broad and popu- 
lar ground of choice by the ijeople ; and although he has anticipated 
me in many of the points I shall make, they contain facts that can- 
not be repeated too often. 

By the report of the Committee on Elections and Piivileges of last 
session we are confined to the consideration of a mass of testimonj' 



taken, 1 submit, not to establisli who was elected governor of Louisi- 
ana, but both ]iroduced and taken altogether to establish the right 
of one or the other of two contestants for a seat«in this body. The 
instructions of the Senate to that committee were : 

That the Committee on Privileges and Elections be instructed to inquire and re- 
port to the Senate whether there is any existing State government in Louisiana, &c. 

To that same committee were also referred the credentials of John 
Ray and William L. McMillen, each claiming to be elected to the seat 
made vacant by the resignation of William Pitt Kellogg as Senator 
from the State of Louisiana. Now, in order to view the estimation in 
wliich that very committee considered the points submitted to them, 
look at the typographical execution of the report. They emphasize 
one question and almost totally ignore the other. After saying that 
they had devoted weeks to the investigation of the subject referred 
to them, they say : 

The Senate must, tlierefore, determine whether either McMillen or Eay, and if 
either, which, is entitled to said seat. 

No one can doubt in reading the testimony that the object contended 
for by Ray and McMillen respectively was a seat in this body, atid 
hence each one of tbem sought only to establish the legality of the 
organization of the Legislature whence he derived his credentials. 
Could either of them have established that their credentials were in 
legal form, they would have been admitted into this body upon a 
lirima fade case ; and therefore the whole gravamen of their labors 
was directed to establishing that fact. The term was about to expire ; 
there were but a few short weeks of it still enduring ; and if either 
one of them could have made out a imma facie case, he would have 
been admitted to the Senate, and the Senate never would have gone 
into the merits of the case at all. ■ > 

In examining into this contest the committee comparatively lost 
sight of the other and more importajit branch of the subject, or at 
least entered into it in a manner so imperfect as in no degree to war- 
rant Congress in assuming to exercise, for the first time since the 
reconstruction of the South, the powder to order an election for State 
officers under Federal legislation and control. 

McMillen on one side and Ray on the other each conducted Ms 
case, not the case of Louisiana. Louisiana's case has never been 
heard here, and until it is heard I shall rest Avith perfect confidence 
ui)on the good sense of this body, knowing that it will not overturn 
a government until it knows that it was established in defiance of 
the Avish and the intention of the i)eople of the State. 

The Senator from Wisconsin, [Mr. Carpenter,] in his last appeal 
to the Senate on the Louisiana question, has asserted that both sides 
agree upon sundry ]>ropositions connected therewith. In furtherance 
of tills assertion, however, he assumes one ])osition as mutually agreed 
upon that is by no means assented to by myself, and I do not believe 
that he will find anotlicr lieliever of his assert ion in this liody. 

He says in his siiecchdeliveredonthe 4th of March last, and printed 
in the Recohd of March 10: 

T ask the attention of the Senate to the fact that at this electicm electors of Pres- 
ident and Vice rrcsidcnt oin^lit to have been elected, because I claiiii lliat tlie decis- 
ion of l.otli HdiiHcHof (:on;;rrsH icjccting the vote of the eleclc.rs iif tlial Slate, 
and denying I^imisiana any voin- whatever in the election of I'lesident and Vice- 
J'ntsident, is an :idjudi<ati(in by Congress that no result was accoiii]>lished by the 
pretended election <,i NovenibVr 4, 1872. If anything was accoini)lislied at'that 
election, then presid.nlial cK-i tors, agovernor, and otlier State olhceis, and a Legis- 
lature were elected. Hut if no presidential electors were elected, then no election 
of govenior and other State oiiicc;rs and members of the Legislature was efTected. 



Contfress having decided that the election was void as to presidential electors, it 
follows that the election of State officers and members of the Legislature held at 
the same time, and subject to the same objections, must be void also. 

The Senator broadly aud unwarrantably assumes a fact tliat the 
record totally contradicts him in. I cannot recall at the present mo- 
ment, but I think it was on the 12th of February, 1873, that the two 
Houses met to act upon the votes cast by the different States. On the 
10th of February the Committee on Privileges and Elections of this 
body, who had been directed to inquire and report as to the presiden- 
tial election in Louisiana, Arkansas, aud other States, reported iu 
regard to Louisiana as follows : 

We find that the official returns of the election of electors from the various 
parishes of Louisiana have never been counted by anybody having authority to 
count them. 

They never said that that election was void ; nor did Congress 
come to any such conclusion, because although Congress determined 
that question, respectively each House for itself, the record shows 
what was the conclusion in each House as to the result of that elec- 
tion. The Senate resolved as follows : 

That all the obiections having been considered, no electoral vote purporting to 
be that of the State of Louisiana be counted. 

And the House resolved : 

That in the judgment of the House, none of the returns reported by the tellers 
as electoral votes of the State of Louisiana should be counted. 

The only conclusion that Congress has come to in regard to the vote 
of Louisiana is the conclusion that I want to hold you to to-day, that 
you do not know how the election has gone in Lonisiana, and until 
you do know you have no right to interfere with it. 

We are told that the Kellogg government is a gross usurpation, and 
that dii'e consequences are to result to the dominant party iu Congress 
and in the country, and that we as Senators will be gros.sly derelict 
of our duty unless we apply a remedy which it is alleged exists under 
the instruction of the Constitution that the United States shall guar- 
antee to every State in this Union a republican form of government. 

This proposition has so far mainly been urged upon us by the Senator 
from Wisconsin. In the bill which he has introduced to restore the 
rights of the State of Louisiana he has assumed an existing state of 
facts in regard to affairs there from which I totally dissent, and 
which assumption I contend and shall endeavor to show to the Senate 
is not at all warranted by the information -in its possession. 

In the first place, let me ask what is our right of interference ? 
That right must be based upon two general grounds; first, whether 
it is conferred upon lis by the Constitution upon any given state of 
facts ; and second, whether that state of facts exists. 

I shall leave the argument on the first of these propositions to the 
more experienced members of this body, whose views will interest, 
instruct, and enlighten the Senate to a degree that I should be entirely 
without expectation of equaling, and I shall confine myself altogether 
to the proposition that the Senate has not been informed, nor attempted 
to inform itself, as to whether a state of facts exists growing out of 
the election of 1872 iu Louisiana that either requires or even justifies 
Congress in interfering. I assert aud maintain that the Senate does 
not know that William P. Kellogg was not elected governor at that 
time ; that the information laid before the Committee on Privileges 
and Elections of the Forty-second Congress related entirely to what 
was done bv certain returning boai'ds, to what occurred through an 



order issued by a judge of a Federal court, and that the examiuation 
held by that committee scarcely touched upon Avhat, if we are to 
exercise our right of interfereuce, is the true subject of inquiry : Hoiv 
did the people of Louisiana vote on the 4th of November, 1872; for which 
person of the two then seeking their sulirages for the office of gov- 
ernor on that day did they actually vote ? With the exception of 
myself, and I do not know that I ought even to except myself, nobody 
has given greater attention to this, matter than the Senator from 
Wisconsin. He, after spending these weeks elaborating his report 
and studying that testimony, admits in the Senate that he does not 
believe Mr. McEnery was elected. Now, we know perfectly well 
that there were two men voted for ou that day. The Senator from 
Wisconsin says : 

I do not tliink that Mr. McEnery was in fact elected. 

Now, can there be an election without a result ? If he does not 
think that in fact Mr. McEnery was elected on that day, he must 
think in fact the other man was. That is the question for Congress 
to determine, it seems to me, before it is called upon to determine 
whether it has the right constitutionally to interfere. 

In a case somewhat analogous, the New Jersey case of 1840, known 
most generally as the Broad Seal case, and to which I shall have oc- 
casion to refer as I proceed. Congress took a direct and thorough 
method of ascertaining the facts connected therewith, as my friend 
from California [Mr. Hager] very well knows, for he was counsel in 
the case. It may with some truth be contended that neither the acts 
of a returning board nor the order of a Federal judge can impose a 
government upon the people of a State, and that a government estab- 
lished by either of such means is no more repxxblican in form than 
were it established by force of arms, however it might subsequently 
rigidly comply with the written form of a republican constitution. 

It is the voice of the people alone that constitutes a government 
under our institutions. That " governments derive their just powens 
fi-om the consent of the governed " is an axiom too familiar to be for- 
gotten, and I contend that Congress has not in its possession any 
evidence worthy of regard that Mjt. Kellogg is governor in viola- 
tion of the consent of the governed; and until it is so informed, it 
can do no greater wrong, can in no manner more widely depart from 
its obligation as one of the co-ordinate braiiches of the Government 
of the United States to guarantee to Louisiana a republican form of 
government, than unjustifiably to set aside the present government 
in that State and impose upon her people the necessity of making 
another choice tlirough the bill of the Senator from Wisconsin. 

William P. Kellogg is to-day governor of the State of Louisiana. 
He is recognized as such by your Chief Executive, by your co-ordinate 
branch of Congress who have admitted to seats upon'their floor mem- 
bers properly certified by him to have been elected. He is recognized 
:xs such also by the supreme court of that State, and Congress ought 
to be satisfied, before it undertakes to overthrow him as the governor 
of one of the sovereign States of the Ujiicni, that he holds the office con- 
trary to the desires, contrary to the expressed wish and intention of 
the people governed. They should know that, and they should know 
what tlie people of Louisiana willed in 1872 and what their wish is 
to-day before they undertake to interfere with him. There is not a 
particle of evidence of that kind here. If he holds the office by the 
wish and according to the iutention of the people governed, then his 
goveruuieiit is repubhcau in form under the constitution of that 



state, and as all the evidence goes to show that he does so hold it, 
those who would oust him from his position are compelled to show 
proof to the contrary. 

Now let me call the attention of the Senate for a few moments to 
the political antecedents of that State. Then also let me ask your 
attention to the conclusion that the Senator from Wisconsin himself 
admits, that the State on the day of that election was largely repub- 
lican and cast a majority of republican votes. In April, 1868, the 
republican vote of the State of Louisiana was 64,901, and the demo- 
cratic vote was 38,000, giving a republican majority of twenty-six 
thoiisand and some hundieds. Under the necessity, as it seems, of the 
democratic party in the year 1868 to carry that State at all hazards, 
they instigated such scenes of violence thi'oughout the State that on 
the day of the election for Grant and Seymour in 1868 the colored 
people refrained ffom going to the polls. In the parish of Orleans 
alone, which only five months before polled 14,000 republican votes, 
we had to content ourselves with 240 — two hundred and forty white 
men who had courage enough to go up and cast their votes. And so 
throughout the State ; parishes that had cast from 500 to 1,000 votes 
for the republican candidate only a few short months before were 
found without a vote, and in some instances casting one, or two, or 
tkree votes. Is it any wonder under such circumstances that a dem- 
ocratic majority of forty-odd thousand should be rolled up and that 
the republican vote had fallen oft' some 50 per cent. ? The democratic 
vote had increased 100 per cent, and the republican vote had fallen 
off 50 per cent., so that that election was a farce. 

Then when we come to the election of 1870, when peace and tran- 
quillity prevailed once more in the State and there was not that in- 
tense political excitement, we find that the republican State candi- 
date received 65,500 votes and the democratic vote relapsed to its 
former number of 41,000, giving a republican majority on that occa- 
sion of 24,000 agam. Now, I assert, and I can prove both by the 
testimony taken before the committee and by the conclusion ad- 
mitted by the Senator from Wisconsin himself, that the colored 
people of Louisiana who Avere largely in the majority voted almost 
en masse in 1872 for the republican candidate. I do not think any 
Senator here will refute my assertion that as a class the colored men 
of the South are a unit as republicans. In some comments of Senator 
Trumbull, formerly a Senator from Illinois, on the report of the ma- 
jority, he commented upon the division of the races in Louisiana and 
quoted the census to show that there were a hundred and odd more 
white males in Louisiana than there were blacks. He quoted the 
census correctly; there is no doubt about that; there are that num- 
ber. The relative division is eighty-seven thousand and odd whites, 
and 86,913 blacks, males twenty -one years old and upward ; but the 
Senator did not quote far enough. He should have examined the 
column of citizenship, and he would have discovered that the black 
citizens were 15,000 majority over the whites. 

Mr. CARPENTER. Will you give me the page ? 

Mr. WEST. Page 619. We have an aggregate of 173,979 males, 
black and white, but we only have an aggregate of 159,001 citizens, 
black and white, and I ask you where are you to look for your unnatiual- 
ized people ? Not among the blacks ; we all know how they became 
naturalized. Now turn to page 629 of the first part of the census and 
you will find the same result derived there in a classification particu- 
larly of the State, and yoii will find also that in one single parish, the 
parish of Orleans, there are 9,000 unnaturalized foreigners. 



8 

Now, I will admit that if we were to go by the census or were we 
to go by such presumptions, you have no authority to establish a 
o-overnrtient in that State or in any State ; but when a State govern- 
ment is in existence the knowledge of the choice that its people did 
very probably make should make us pause before we assume that 
they did not make that choice, and we shotild so assume arbitrarily 
if without proper knowledge of the facts we order that people to 
choose again. 

It is necessary that the Senate should be asked once more to take 
a retrospective view of the political events that preceded the election 
in Louisiana in 1872. There Avere factions in both parties, or rather 
both parties embraced individuals and partial organizations inclining 
to a third, the liberal party. Several months before the presidential 
election the main parties in rivalry compacted their organizations and 
entered the field respectively as' units. The republicans fell back 
upon their own lines and presented an unbroken front. The few re- 
maining liberal rej)ublicans were gradually dissolved in the demo- 
cratic organization. They first dropped the name of republican and 
finally surrendered and became part of the democratic party, which, 
to signalize the event, took unto itself a new name and was known 
thereafter in the canvass by tlie title which we also ascrilie to it here, 
the fusion party ; so that parties relapsed into their own normal ele- 
ments, black and white. 

Assuming that we have no white republicans there, and referring to 
the testimony of the parties particularly interested to prove that the 
black men voted the democratic ticket, we find it is the reverse. I 
will qiiote now from the testimony of Mr. McMillen. Mr. McMillen, 
who appeared here as a candidate for a seat in this body and conse- 
quently desired to make as favorable a showing for his side of the 
question as he conscientiously and honorably could, when asked as to 
that election " How many thousand votes were there in the colored 
vote that voted for Greeley ? " he replied : 

My impression always has been that there have been about as many colored peo- 
ple who voted in opposition to the icpiiUliian ticket from one cause and another as 
there were of white people who votril tlie ripul)licau ticket, and that four or five 
thousand would cover the eutiie iiumbei- tlirouj;hout the State. 

There was the admission which probably forced the conclusion upon 
the Senator from Wisconsin that the colored population of the State, 
outnumbering the white, in the last election were almost unanimous 
in their support of the republican ticket. Now what testimony did 
they bring forward to rebut that ? and this is the only rebutting 
testimony in the whole book ; all the other testimony pointing to the 
conclusion that the Senator admits. They brought forward a colored 
democrat ; they did get one. They had a man by the name of Arm- 
stead, a colored man, nominated as secretary of state on the demo- 
cratic ticket for the ]Mirpose of catching probably some votes of that 
race; and he admiti^ that al>out two thousand up in Northern Lou- 
isiana voted the whole ticket from his information. He was cross- 
questioned by this very contestant, Mr. ISIcMillen, who also wanted 
to establish the fact, if he couhl, that the colored men voted the 
democratic ticket, and Mr. McMillen <m that same day, being asked 
by the Senator from Wisconsin wlvcther the testimony of Mr. Arm- 
steatl had occasioned him to form any difterent conclusion, admitted 
under oath that it did. not. After Mr. Armstead's testimony was 
closed, tlie Senator from Wisconsin asked Mr. McMillen "if tlve same 
questions were ])ut to you would you answer them now the same as 
you have answered them f" after hearing this witness' testimony that 



9 

so many black men voted the democratic ticket in that State, Mr. 
McMillen says, " as they are down in the record," it does not change 
my mind ; there were scarcely over five thousand under any circum- 
stances. 

Now we will see about this alliance, this fusion party, this unholy 
alliance that was styled by the men who subsequently engaged in it 
^'as an alliance with infamy worse than infamy itself." That was 
the alliance that the Senator from Wisconsin himself said " was en- 
tered into for the purpose of establishing a government based upon 
fraud, in defiance of the wishes and intention of the voters of that 
State." It is almost incredible that any party organization could so 
demean itself as to renounce all its self-respect and the respect of the 
world in an eager grasp for i>lace and power ; and yet so stands the 
chronicle of the time. Among the many gentlemen who have been 
here claiming to represent the people of Louisiana in this effort to 
overthrow the government of that State was the candidate for the 
oflice of attorney-general on the fusion ticket, Mr. Ogden. As an 
illustration of what he at one time tliought of the fellowship with 
which he eventually allied himself I give his remarlvs as reported to 
have been made in the democratic State convention. 

This is the report : 

Keferring to tlie statement that we could not succeed without the co-operation of 
" some power without reaard to the character of that power," the speaker spoke in 
de])T'ccatiun; terms of the proposition. He thought that a good ticket of honest 
men would sucei't'd. The refmiu movement had utterly confused the jxiliticsof the 
State and prt' vented the coalition with a certain individual. You might call it sickly 
sentimentality, he said, but he utterly rejected the proposition of a coalition with 
"Warmoth. [Applause.] It is not sickly sentimeutality to uphold one's principles. 
Honesty is the best policy. * * * * * * 

It was true, he added, tliat those who would form this coalition thought that suc- 
cess could only be obtaiiii'd liy a fraudulent registration. * * * 

He again warned the people from coalescing with Warmoth, who was a paralytic 
and a beggar before the people. 

And yet in two months thereafter this gentleman spoke at the same 
stand with Governor Warmoth in support of the fusion ticket, and 
clasped hands across the infamous, not the bloody, chasm. What 
was the basis of this alliance? What was the service proftered on 
one liand and the reward promised on the other ? Recourse must be 
had now once more to the report of the Senator from Wisconsin ; and 
I will ask the Clerk to read what is marked on page 44 of the report. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows : 

The tostinioiiy shows that leading and sagacious politicians of the State, who were 
■acting with WariuDth, cntei taim-d tlie ojiiuion before the election that Warmoth's 
control of the election machinery was equivalent to 20,000 votes; and we are satis- 
fied, by the testimony, that this opinion was well founded. 

Mr. WEST. Now I will ask the Clerk to be kind enough to turn to 
page 871, and read the testimony given by J. Q. A. Fellows. 
The Chief Clerk read as follows: 

Question. In your conversation with leading democrats in New Orleans duiiug 
the last canvass or two, at the time the fusion was made liy (Jovernor Warmoth, 
state what their calculation was that his accession to the party would be worth to 
them. 

. Answer. I will premise by stating that for several years I have held myself 
somewhat neutral in politics, waiting for .an opportunity to arise when I could 
unite with one party or anotherfor the best interests of the State ; and last spring 
and summer, when the canvass was approaching and being carried on, there was 
an efl'ort made by some moderate demociats and reforniers, and a large number of 
othei- jieople in Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, that stood in the same posi- 
tion with mysilt', to make a uniou with the best portion of the republican party, 
and secure tlir govcrnmtiit of the State in all proper things. A fusion was contin- 
ually thought of by the democrats with the governor. I was solicited time and 
again, probably by thirty, I tliink, to join in the movement to make the fusion. 



10 

During that time say for two or three months, the whole matter was canvassed 
over and over again. They said that, with the assistance of the governor, or fusioa 
with the governor, they could certainly carry the State against the republican 
party, or the custom-hcfuse party, or the negro party, as they called it. I thought 
it could not he done; that he had not votes enough at hiH\'(>niniand to doit. I 
nndeistood that he had not over 1,000 voters that were his followi is. They ad- 
mitted that there were nomore than 2,000; but theysaid this: that his power, with, 
the assistance of the registration and election laws, was good for 20,000 votes by 
his appointing his men, or men who would work in his interest, as registrars, and 
the manipulation of the registration, and the appointment of commissioneis of 
election and in placing the election polls, and they thought his influence was good 
for 20,000 votes. ThisT was the rejjeated calculation of every one I talked witli that 
finally went into the fusion party. Others refused to go in who were called "last- 
ditch" democrats, or "straight-out" democrats; many of them refused to go in the 
fusion, and many of them voted for Grant and Kellogg who were within my ac- 
quaintance. They made the same calculation ; there was the calculation of oiie or 
two thousand followers, enough to make fifteen or twenty thousand altogether. 

Mr. WEST. The reading by the Clerk just at this momeut says 
that that "was the common talk of the i^oliticiaus in Louisiana as he 
understood it at that time. Now, that it was not only the com- 
mon talk of the politicians, but that it was the sentiment of the dem- 
ocratic party at large of that State, I have evidence here. The Pica- 
yune of December 24, 1872, in discussing some questions connected 
with the election, shamelessly admits that this alliance was entered 
into for that very purpose. Here is its language : 

All who went into the Greeley and Brown fusion movement were nece8.sarily 
thrown into politiral nlatious with Wai'moth, who was in tlie s:inii' line of policy, 
and as he had control of the ballot-boxes under the infamous registration and elec- 
tion laws of the State, it was thought to be neither neces.sary nor expedient to throw 
him otf, since he was in a position to insure a fair election and perhaps keep some 
negroes from going to thepolls. 

There is the admission. These infamous registration and election 
laws that the democratic party had been crying out against for two 
whole years they then hugged to their bosoms and used them for their 
own base purposes. I will quote again from the same paper, of a 
diiierent date, to show how far the respectable leaders of the demo- 
cratic party in that State admitted that they had gone into this un- 
holy alliance, how far they admitted that they were going to practice 
upon the ballot-box, and that although we might have a peaceable and 
a fair election, as they called it, when the votes came up to be taken 
out of the box they tumbled up Jack. That was the reason we had 
a peaceable election in Louisiana, because we did not believe that 
such infamy could be engaged in. We did not believe that whole 
ballot-boxes could be taken and returned with the number of 500 
votes, and without the name of a single republican in a precinct 
strongly republican. Now, we have here the proceedings of tlie rati- 
fication of the fusion ticket, the shaking hands across the bloody 
chasm, in which the democratic candidate for governor, John McEu- 
ery, says : 

It is known to many of you, my countrymen, that when the democratic conven- 
tioniu .Tune assembled in vour city I was tlic tinn. decided, (Aitspoken iidvoeate, in 
that convention and out of it, for union and ((nilition of the conserv;itive eleuitMits 
upon a Just basis in oii|npsitiou to lli,e powi r of tlie military despot who sits en- 
throned at \V;isliinglon ; tlir man \v1h> in tlic cxerei.se of despotic power has robbed 
usof our rig)ils .sitiiii;; I'ntbidned at Wasliington. In this fusion, in this compact — 
if I may .so term it^ — is r(<ogiiized as Ijinding upon the whole of the iieoi)le of Lou- 
isiana, all the obligulidii wiiich it imposes, you must accept this coiii|)a(^, this coa- 
lition, aw an absdhite, entirety. There is to bo no renunciation of a part and the 
acceptance of a part of it. 

It is very plain what the fusion candidate for governor thought 
were to be tlie bcnetits to his prospects by the compact that he ad- 
mitted bound him and his followers. What the party of the second 



11 

part to this compact, Governor Warmoth, tlionglit of it, is sliown by 
his speech on the same occasion. He says : 

A gieat deal has been said of me because of my course in relation to certain legis- 
lation in this State. It is known to all of you that I recommended in no uncertain 
languaue to the Legislature the repeal of a certain law. The Legislature did after 
afa.shlou luoilify tlu'se laws. Those bills ha.v<' passed the Legislature, and are 
before nie for signature. Now I propose to tell the jieopleiif thiscity, and through 
the press represented here the people of the State, the siuipli', jilaiu reason that 1 
do not sign these laws. In the lir.st place they make no material luodilicatiDU of the 
old e!i( tidu and registration laws. In the second place, it was iiitenchd, when the 
repeal of these laws was forced through the Legislature, that instead of them Gen- 
eral Giant should use his election law upon the people of this State ; and then, be- 
sides that, the great mass of the people wlio have so long demanded the moditicatiou 
or repeal of these laws have changed their minds. 

The great mass of the people who had denounced these Liws as out- 
rageous changed their minds and were willing to take all the false 
ttdvantages under which they could be used for their benefit. 

Now let me digress here a moment with reference to our election 
law. The Senator from Wisconsin the other day charged that Gover- 
nor Warmoth had as a matter of decency repealed that election law. 
He did it under a necessity to perfect his own schemes. The Legis- 
lature elected at the same time with Governor Kellogg re-enacted one 
provision of it and only for a particular purpose. There were a num- 
ber of vacancies in the Legislature, and the new election law which 
was approved by Governor Warmoth November 20, 1872, provided 
that those members should be returned to the Legislature through 
the instrumentality of police jiuries; and inasmuch as no pohce juries 
had been elected or were recognized in the various parishes through- 
out the State, the Legislature re-enacted that clause and enabled the 
governor for that particular time and occasion to appoint those police 
juries so that the machinery of election might be perfected to retiun 
members of the Legislature. He re-enacted so much of that iniquity 
as answered the purpose for the moment of returning a few men for 
the Legislatiu-e when we had already a majority there, and as soon 
as we got a full Legislature we repealed the law, and all the iniquity 
under which the people of Louisiana have complained that they have 
labored for yeai"s is now obsolete, and the next election in that State 
can with proper protection be held in peace and give a fair result. 

Mr. HAMILTON, of Maryland. I wish to ask the Senator a ques- 
tion, if he will allow me to do so. Has not that Legislature passed a 
law repealing the one alluded to, and is it not now in possession of the 
governor or to be held by him until after this Congress shall have 
adjourned ? 

Mr. WEST. The Legislature has passed a law repealing that act 
and the governor has signed it. 

Mr. HAMILTON, of Maryland. Have they not passed another re- 
pealing that act and reviving and confirming the first act ? 

Mr. WEST. No, sir ; not that I know of. At all events we know 
nothing about the laws of Louisiana until they are promulgated. 
After having urged in two successive annual messages to the Legis- 
lature the repeal of these very election laws, after succeeding in 
getting such repeal effected by the Legislature up to the point of his 
approval of the law, that act was put in his pocket and Warmoth 
audaciously avowed that the old law was good enough for his pur- 
pose just then. Is it not iilain enough that it was his intention to 
defraud the voters of the State in the manner referred to in the tes- 
timony which the Clerk has read? 

Follow up the proceedings in furtherance of this design, follow 
them step by step as illustrated in the testimony and by the docu- 



12 

ments transmitted to us by the President iu liis message of January 
13, 1873. Among other evidence we find the confidential circular of 
the State registrar of voters. 

Mr. CARPENTER. Will my friend allow me to say a word on the 
qiiestiou of the repeal of that election law ? I understand that the 
law which was passed by Kellogg's legislature about a year ago, and 
which has been published, was repealed three or four days ago or 
within a very few days, about the time this bill was introduced here, 
and repealed because the friends of Kellogg's government thought it 
would be a bad point to show in Congress. I am informed and have 
seen a telegram from New Orleans saying that although Kellogg did 
have that law repealed so as to have it have its eft'ect herein the Senate, 
on the last day of the session they passed another law in substance 
reinstating it, which Kellogg is keeping in his pocket until after the 
adjournment of Congress, and then is to approve and take the power 
back. If the Senator has any knowledge on that subject, I should 
like to know whether that is so or not. 

Mr. WEST. I am not so familiar with the laws that governors of 
Louisiana carry in their pockets, it seems, as the Senator fi'om Wis- 
consin. He gave us the evidence of that a year or two ago as to how 
adroitly these things could l)e manipulated. I do not know the fact. 

Mr. CONKLING. Did you ever hear of it ? 

Mr. WEST. No, I never heard of it. We know nothing about the 
laws of Louisiana until they are promulgated ; and I do not think 
the Senator need be apprehensive 

Mr. MORTON. I never heard of that before. 

Mr. CARPENTER. I saw a dispatch yesterday to that effect, and 
from the source it .came I believe it to be true, though I have no per- 
sonal knowledge. 

Ml-. MORTON. I have Kellogg's dispatch the morning of the last 
day of the Legislature announcing the passage of the other act. 

Mr. WEST. Mr. President, I ask the Senate's pardon for my appa- 
rent tediousness; but I am telling the true story of Louisiana; I am 
telling the story that we can take before oiu" constituencies in the 
coming fall campaign and lay the true facts before them and let them 
judge between right and wi'ongin my State. Here is the confidential 
circular of the State registrar of voters under date of October 24, 
1872, to the supervisors of registration, appointed not by the governor 
of the State, but throughout the State by the democratic State cen- 
tral committee with the proxies of the governor iu blank in their 
hands; not a single republican was allowed to witness that election 
held that day in Louisiana behind the ballot-box; and what were the 
instructions to these convenient tools? 

State of Louisiana, 
Office of State Registek of Voters, 

New Orleans, October 24, 1872. 

SiK: Iu addition to the instructions contained in Circular No. 8, from this office, 
you are instructed — 

First. In counting the ballots after election, count fir«>t the votes east for presiden- 
tial electors and members of Cdiijrrcss, kt't])iiiji sc])aratr tallylist.s on thi', Foiui 
No. l.providinl for tliat purpose, anil making up and coniplitinu llic statcuunt of 
votes for c.adi poll, upon Form No. 1. Tlieu clo.sti tlio box, ri'seai it, and proceed in 
a similar manner, until all tlie uatiimal votes have been counted. 

The republican party in the counting of the national votes was 
allowed to be represented under the law of Congress by the super- 
visors appointed ))y the district or circuit judge, but as 80(m as the 
counting of the national votes was done with they excluded those 
men aiul i>ractice(l their frauds in secret : 

Tlien proceed with the counting of the State and pari.sh votes, bearing in mind 



13 

the factthat the United States supenasora of election and deputy marshals have 
no right whatever to scrutinize, inspect, or be present at the counting of the State 
and parish votes. " 

Then on November 2, 1872, the same State registrar of voters, in 
reply to the request of the chairman of the republican central com- 
mittee that republican judges or commissioners should be allowed at 
the polls m the State of Louisiana, flatly denied the republican party 
a single representative. 

State of Louisiana, 
1 Office of State Registration of Voters, 

Neto Orleans, November 2, 1872. 
Sir: In reply to your communication of date, I must respectfully decline com- 
pliance with your request io appoint one commissioner of election at each pollino- 
place, ti'om the republican party, at the general election to be held November 4, 

In regard to your second request, I have the honor td inform you that the list of 
polling places in this parish will be published in the officialjoimial and other papers 
to-morrow, 3d instant. 
Very respectfully, 

„.,„.," ^ B. P. BLANCHARD, 

nmte Aegisier of Voters and Supervisor of Registration, Parish of Orleans. 
Hon. S. B. Packard. 

President State liepuhlican Committee. 
Now, sir-, will any Senator on this floor rise in his place and say 
that he countenances such proceedings as that ? Will he rise in his 
place here and say that he believes a fair election could be held 
under such circumstances, or that the returns show anvthing like the 
choice of the people when that choice had to be submitted to such 
an ordeal as that f Where is the Senator who will say that he con- 
siders that justice was done then to the people of -Louisiana ? 

Sir, it was with such preliminaries for a fair election as I have 
stated here, that severe exclusion which the fusion party desired to 
have of republican witnesses at the polls, that the sun of Auster- 
litz, as my friend from Kentucky [Mr. McCreeryI said, illumined 
the glorious field on that morning the fusion party rallied around 
the banner of equal rights— equal rights, when a white man had a 
chance to vote and a black man could not ! To follow out my friend's 
illustration the chief was surrounded by his marshals. He'^only had 
to give them the instructions to carry out his ideas, and the repub- 
lican party was routed as the Austrians were on that memorable day. 
True, he had no Murat ; there was no Lannes, or Bertrand, or Berna- 
dotte ; but there were convenient tools at hand who stood ready to 
carry out his instructions. " Go to those parishes and cheat the ne- 
groes, or let me never see your face again." That was his order; that 
was the glorious sun of Austerlitz that illumined the field— a field 
which I as a Louisianian blush to say was illumined in that way. 

The curious in the valorous exploits of those creatures in the political 
combat can gratify their desire for information by referring to their 
deeds recorded in this testimony. The achievements of one of them 
were so unjiaralleled and extraordinary that I can scarcely avoid 
giving him the notoriety of personal mention. Mr. Gaboon, who went 
to Madison Pari.sh as supervisor of registration and election, signalized 
his devotion to his mission by reporting a regi.stration of 1,718 Avhite 
voters in that parish, whereas the census of 1870 gives only 936 total 
white population. But his courage seems to have failed him, and 
after taking flight to New Orleans, where he secured all the facilities 
for making up his returns to order, he only returned 838 democratic 
voters— something less than 50 per cent, of his registration, but liberal • 
enough, however, in comparison with the census and the democratic 
vote of lfc70, which latter only reached 37 . As a sample of how these 



14 

returns were made up by that individual the Senator from New Jersey 
yesteday had quotations made from the testimony going to show that 
a justice of the peace went to the room where this man was making up 
these returns and swore him to them in blank. 

Now let us have a little more summing up of the legerdemain — 
for there is no other name for it — that was practiced there upon ballot- 
boxes. In the election of 1870 the (h'uiDcrats carried sixteen parishes in 
the State of Louisiana by an a.L;',nrcij,at(' majdrity of seventy-three hun- 
dred and odd. These same sixteen i)arislie.s were reported by the fusion 
board as giving an aggregate democratic majority of only 7,101 in 1872. 
Upon theii" own showing the democratic loss on their own ground was 
262 votes. In the parishes exclusively democratic on this occasion 
the democratic vote fell back 262 votes in a majority of 7,000. In the 
remaining thirty-six parishes of the State, which were all carried by 
the republicans in 1870 by a ma,jority of 32,616, the fusion board in 
1872 returned an aggregate democratic majority of 1,.556. 

At an election which showed large republican gains in every other 
State of the Union, an astonishing gain of 34,171 in the opposite direc- 
tion is claimed in the exclusively republican parishes of Louisiana by 
a board which admitted a republican gain in the exclusively demo- 
cratic parishes of the State. Where they could manipulate the elec- 
tion machinery, and wanted to do it in republican localities, they 
totally reversed the vote, and in their own parishes, where they did 
not use it, their own vote fell off'. 

Now, sir, with respect to four parishes which the Senator from 
Wisconsin seems to think ought scarcely to have been admitted, be- 
cause the testimony showed that the returns were forged, they only 
showed two hundred and thirty-odd majority for Mr. Kellogg. Let us 
throw them out and that only loses Mr. Kellogg 230 votes ! They 
were forged for the piu-pose of depriving Mr. Kellogg of his legiti- 
mate majority in those jiarishes of nearly 5,000 votes, as shown by 
the previous elections. It would therefore suit very well t«i show 
that they were forged, and throw them out, because that takes away 
80 many majority for Mr. Kellogg. 

Doiibtless the Senate has long ago wearied of this story of fraud. 
It is a sickening and disgusting history, one which I would fain avoid 
recounting ; but it is necessary to the line of my argument, and after 
an allusion to one more glaring instance I will pass to other points. 
The report of the State registrar of voters sliows that the vote of the 
parish of Orleans by the census, not including unnaturalized persons, 
should be 29,43.'>. The fusion party registered .''>5,38.'j votei's and counted 
the votes of 36,359 ; whether they actually voted or not is another 
question. 

Such are only a few instances of the frauds shown by the testimony 
in the report. The whole book is filled with them. They were all per- 
petrated ))y and in the interest of the fusion party, for no members 
of the re)ml)Hean party Avere allowed as officers of the election. Aiul 
it is u))()n such returns as were made through these instruments of 
fraud that tlie Senator from Wisconsin asks us to say that William 
P. Kellogg was not elected govei'nor of Louisiana in 1872. 

Let us irom the record we have follow these returns, and judge of 
how nuich value they possess as giving an authentic account of the 
votes cast at the election. They lirst make their ajjpearance in Gov- 
ernor Wavmoth's testimony on pages 140, 141, 142. The governor 
says tlii'ic tliat they came into his ]>i)ssef^sion about the 14th of Novem- 
ber ; that he laid them before a certain board ; that he took occasion 
to count some of them for the purpose of seeing who were elected 



15 

presidential electors, and so certified himself. He also testifies that 
lie countetl them for the purpose of ascertaining who was elected a 
judge to a certain court wherein he wished a fiieud of his to he in- 
stalled ; and he goes on to testify that he kept possession of those re- 
turns until the 4th day of December ; and yet in a subsequent part of 
the testimony he says that these returns were out of his hands on the 
14th day of Noveml)er and went into the hands of a returning board! 

By following up Governor Warmoth's testimony upon page 494, it 
is evident that he maintained only a nominal custody of these returns. 
On page 1079 he says they were compiled by tweuty-live or thirty 
clerks. On page 864 he says that he himself, unaided by any one, 
either clerks or members of a returning board, counted the whole 
vote forjudges in the parish of Orleans. 

The precise time when these returns, which are anj't-hing else than 
true returns of the election in Louisiana, were transferred from the 
Wharton bo^ird to the De Feriet board does not appear, and reference 
to their having been so transferred is only necessary to show that 
they were manipulated by still other parties before they finally found 
their way into the hands of the Forman lioard ; from the governor to 
one board — then counted solely by himself — then thi'ough the com- 
pilation of thirty clerks to another board, the Forman board. The 
chief of this board testifies, on page 75, tliat his board was elected on 
the 11th December by the senate ; not before noon of that day, it is 
presumed ; and yet before midnight of that same date, within twelve 
hours of his becoming a member of the board, he and some of his a.s- 
sociates compiled, counted, and returned under oath a mass of re- 
turns in manuscript that require sixty pages of this closely printed 
book to contain them. How much scrutiny did Mr. Forman and his 
a.ssociates give or have the opportunity of giving to these returns ? 
Is it not evident that the thirty clerks, many of them the dirty instru- 
ments used behind the ballot-boxes on the day of the election, had 
compiled the returns to suit, and the Forman board, eager to declare 
their party successful, compounded with their consciences and made 
oath to facts of which they had no knowledge ? Moreover, these re- 
tm-ns profess to be signed by two men, Senators Todd and Hunsaker, 
and I hold their affidavits that they never did sign them. Theii' 
names are forged. 

Some of the adventures of these returns were ludicrous enough. 
It having become necessary to remove them from the governor's office 
to prevent them from falling into the hands of the officers of the law, 
trusty henchmen were called into service, and during three nights 
and clays the authentic (?) returns of the famous election in Louisi- 
ana were transferred by them to a i>lace of hiding. In their pockets, 
in their pantaloons legs, in their boots, their hats, the reliable evi- 
dences of the expressed will of the people were sacredly transported. 
As one of the party tells me, "We went into the governor's office thin 
and came out fat !" They went in skeletons and came out Falstaft's. 
Their clothes were wadded with these authentic returns of the elec- 
tion in Louisiana. And then what did they do with them? They 
took them for safe-keeping to the quarters or the residence of a prom- 
inent candidate on the State ticket and left them in his charge a 
week for safe-keeping! They must of course have been very sacredly 
kept. Of course when they are brought here the parties that are in- 
terested in establishing them can with a deal of complacency a^ipeal 
to these as the returns of how the people in Louisiana voted on that 
day. Why, sir, they were pointed out to one of these gentlemen in 
the room of the Committee on Privileges and Elections; and the 



1^ 

committee asked him if lie knew those returns. Yes, he said, he did 
know them ; he knew them exactly like a gambler knows his cards, 
by the backs. He knew they were put there, and without opening 
the box he said he knew those were the returns. Why ? Because he 
came there prepared to say that he knew they were the returns. 

And it is upon such vagrant testimony as this that the Senator 
from Wisconsin gravely asks us under our obligations as Senators to 
declare that William P. Kellogg was not elected governor of Louisiana. 
He has Avoven such a mesh of legal technicalities around the subject, 
made such a conglomerate of returns, legal decisions, parallel cases, 
j)recedents and orders of Federal judges, that men of ordinary reason 
are almost diverted from contemplation of the one great, important 
fact — the fact paramount to all others — whom did the people of 
Louisiana elect governor ? 

Sir, I am sick of returns ; one set is all a fi-aud, the other is all 
guess-work. I claim nothing by returns ; but by the voice of the 
sovereign people of Louisiana, as expressed at the ballot-box, I main- 
tain that the rej>ublican State ticket was elected, and no Senator 
here has, nor has the Senate itself, any evidence worthy of estimation 
to the contrary. 

Two men were voted for as governor. All the proof that John Mc- 
Enery was elected is shown to have been an organized fraud. If 
McEnery was not elected, his opponent was, and I repeat again that 
Congress cannot say to the contrary. 

In the New Jersey case to which I have alluded, and which will be 
found reported in Reports of Committees, tirst session Twenty-sixth. 
Congress^ and in the eighth volume of the Congressional Globe, there 
were five rival candidates on each side claiming seats in the House of 
Representatives, and upon the admission of one or the other side de- 
pended the election of a Speaker. There were one hundi'ed and six- 
teen democrats and one hundred and sixteen whigs returned to that 
Congress in-espective of the vote of New Jersey, which was at that 
time entitled to iive members in the House. Both of the contesting 
parties from New Jersey bore certificates based upon returns made 
according to the laws of New Jersey. Congress assembled on the 2d 
of December, 1839, and the question as to the rights of the NeAv Jer- 
sey members was not decided until the 8th day of July following ; 
and that question was not decided upon any return made by election 
officers, but comndssioners were sent into New Jersey who patiently 
examined the voters themselves, and that examination determined 
who was and who was not elected. Returns went for nothing in the 
case; it was decided by an examination of the voters themselves. 
The inquiry went to the fact as to how ballots were cast, and was not 
satisfied with returns. 

Mr. I'resident, it is a principle of the law of evidence "that the 
affirmative of the issue must be proved; and he who makes an asser- 
tion is tlie person who is expected to support it, before he calls on his 
opponent for an answer." 

I su)>niit that tlie Senator'from Wisconsin has not supported the 
facts alleged in the preamble of his l)ill. Congress dare not with the 
evidence licfore it overturn the government of a sovereign State. The 
right to inteii'en^ is not warranted by the facts that ah)ne can make 
that right. Will you do any less for Louisiana than convince your- 
selves what was the choice of her people? 

The Senator from Wisconsin has pictured some dire events that 
might arise from the failure of Congress to interfere in this nuitter. 
Let me ])icture another du-e event that might have arisen. Sujipose 



17 

iu the returns of the electoral vote for President in 1872, 179 votes 
had been returned for General Grant and 179 votes for his opponent, 
be it Greeley or Gratz Brown, and suppose then that the presidential 
election had depended upon the eight votes of Louisiana, would you 
have admitted the presidential electors by the returns sent here by 
the fusion board ? Would you have ordered a new election ? No, sir; 
but you would haA^e held this Government l)y the point of the bayonet 
until you ascertained how every man iu that State voted, and I claim 
that you shall do Louisinna the same justice here that you would have 
done the national Government iu ascertaining what was the choice of 
its people. Yoii would not have permitted for one moment a determina- 
tion upon returns so loaded with fraud as I have illustrated here, but 
the Avhole power of your Government woixld have been exerted to 
maintain itself until you could know what was the wish of the people 
of Louisiana ; and I ask you to do the same for us. 

Mr. President, the conclusions to which my mind is drawn by a 
consideration of the facts before the Senate are as follows : 

The bill of the Senator from Wisconsin is predicated upon the 
assumption that there is no valid executive in Louisiana, and her laws 
do not permit one to bo chosen until 187G ; that there is no valid 
Legislature, but an invalid one now enacting laws. 

But the Legislature is no longer enacting laws, and the laws of 
Louisiana will compel the election of a new one quite as soon as we 
could provide one. 

We have no shadow of excuse, therefore, for interfering with more, 
than the executive. 

We have no shadow of excuse for ordeiing a new election for the 
executive, merely because the wrong man is holding. 

If we have power to dispossess the wrong man, we have power to 
j)ossess the right one. 

Before we can order a new election, vre must find, not merely that 
Kellogg was not elected, but that no one was elected iu 1872. 

We know that an election was held on the day appointed hj law. 

^^'e know that but two candidates were voted for. We are morally 
certain that one or the other had the greatest number of votes. 

If it be conceded that the State has no Legislature, we must pre- 
sume they will liaA^e one in November next. 

And we morally know that Kellogg or McEuery icas elected, and if 
we have any duty iu the premises, it is the duty of finding ivhiah was 
elected. 

That question has not been tried as yet. The Committee on Privi- 
leges and Elections tried the question whether McMillen or Eay was 
Senator. Another question was referred to the committee, but it was 
not investigated. Such testimony was taken as McMillen oliered 
upon one side, and Eay upon the other. 

The bill uoav sought to be referred to the committee is neither w^ar- 
• ranted by the facts, nor applicable to the political condition of affairs 
in Louisiana. 

The opponents of the present administration in Louisiana, led here 
by the Senator fi-om Wisconsin, are not insisting ujjon what they 
should claim as then- rights, if they have any rights at all. Balked 
in the fraudulent scheme whereby they sought to capture the con- 
trol of a State, they implore Congress now to afford them another 
opportunity. 

Sir, if they believe that they are in the majority iu Louisiana they 
know they will have an opportunity ere long to prove it. If they 
believe that McEnery Avas elected ihey should demand, and be satis- 
2 w 



18 

tied with uotliiug less tban that he .should be iiossessed of the execu- 
tive chair. 

I am conviuced that Mr. Kellogg was elected, and my eftbrts shall 
be coiitiuued to maintain liim where he is. Did I think otherwise I 
would not hesitate a moment to bring forward measures looking to 
the installation of the rightful governor; but a new election ordered 
by Congress is no remedy for the evils which are complained of by 
those who favor it. 

Now, Mr. President, I will i)ass fi'om the politics of Louisiana and 
refer somewhat to her material and social interests. It has been the 
common charge rung throughout this country that the republicans 
of the South were responsible for the decay and the detriment and 
the disaster that prevail through many of those States. True, we are 
to a certain extent resj)onsible. Let ns understand what that extent 
is, and let us be judged by the facts that each Senator representing a 
State can present for consideration here. 

The oppressed condition of the industrial and agricultural interests 
of Louisiana and the prostration of the commercial business of New 
Orleans are referred to as the results of republican misrule. Even 
these adverse circumstances are much exaggerated, and it is a jiross 
error to attribute them as mainly due to political causes. We all know 
that whenever material prosiJerity lags, all jseople, and more partic- 
ularly our people, address their first complaints against the admin- 
istration of their government. This is the necessary consequence of 
our institutions. Dissatisfaction takes shape instantly, as opposed 
to the governing power, and the first thought of relief creates an ex- 
pectation that a change of political control will insure it. 

There is a maxim applicable here, and one which we will do well to 
consider in its application to the distress prevailing throughout the 
land, the spirit of Avhich is likely to control in a great degree the po- 
litical events of the next few years. It is said — 
Murder a man's family and he will brook it, 
Eut keep yonr hands out of his breeches pocket. 

Wlien the people of this country are distressed they will call us to 
account because their pockets suffer; and it is well for us to consider 
that maxim in its application to the country at large. That is a maxim 
Avhich is infliiencing Louisiana in the complaints that the 'political 
management of that State has brought all its distress itpon it. And 
yet tlu! people of Louisiana should consider what are the causes of 
the distress prevailing there, and by the record decree to whom polit- 
ical evils are attributable. 

I shall only speak now of the financial' affairs of the State. That 
agriculture has not of late yielded adequate remuneration to those 
eugiig(!d in it is due to failures of crops and other causes, and it has 
been in no way aftected by late political events. The misadjustment 
of the relations of labor and cai)ital also for a time has been preju- 
dicial, and Avill continue to work injury until better regulated. 

But in looking at the immediate condition of the finances of Louisi- 
ana, in considering tlie extent of the del)t of the State, it is well to 
inquire whether it is due to the republican party, and whether its 
exclusion from i)ower would bring iil)out a change for the bettei". 

There lias been a good deal of confusion as to tlie debt of tlu^ State 
of Louisiana. I present here the net debt of the State, withont any 
reference to contingencies, many of them having Ijeconu; oljsolete by 
the lapse of the legislation tliat made them, and I shall call the at- 
tention of the Senate ami of the country to the fact that when the 
State of Louisiana was relieved from Biilitarv control and n^mitted 



19 

to the control of the Legislature called into being nnder the policy 
of Andrew Johnson, the debt of that State was |5,018,635.14. 

Under Mr. Johnson's policy we had a democratic Legislature. It 
commenced its existence on the 1st of January, 1836, and it held one 
session in that year, and held another in 1867," so that the total exist- 
ence of the Andrew Johnson policy in the government of Louisiana 
was of eighteen months' duration, for it was suspended by the act of 
reconstruction of July 19, 1867. In eighteen months the democratic 
party of Louisiana, it being exclusively democratic, added $9,000,000 
in round numbers to our debt, or, to give the exact figures, $8,997,300. 
A repuldicau administration extending from April, 1868, to the present 
time has increased the debt of Louisiana $10,077,471.86. The "Andrew 
Johnson policy" Legislature increased our dcltt, $8,997,300, as I said. 
The first republican Legislature approi.riatod .s-^,911,488, but did not 
increase the debt that much. The second republican Legislature ap- 
propriated $9,607,282, and the last republican Legislature during its 
existence, this Legislature that you are told is sqtiandering the sub- 
stance of the people of Louisiana, got along with one-lialf of the 
amount required by either of its predecessors, namely, $4,875,269, dur- 
ing the two years of its existence. Senators must bear in mind that 
the expenditures of the State of Louisiana are something enormous, 
attril)utable to the topographical formation of the State, and the 
necessity of protection against overflows that are now, as I speak, 
inflicted on those people, rendering necessary an expenditiu-e for 
levees alone annually almost of as much money as would run an 
ordinary Commonwealth in this vicinity. 

The administration there has been criticised for what is called a 
repiuliation of the debt. With a debt of $24,000,000 in that State, 
quite half of which is due to the democratic party, a great portion 
of it duo also to the unfortunately dilapidated condition in which 
our levees were loft at the conclusion of hostilities in that direction, 
and to the necessity that devolved on us to repair them — with such 
a debt oppressing us what was to be done ? We had the alternative 
to pay, to repudiate, or to compromise. The property-holders of that 
State, who are iu the main the democratic party, took counsel to- 
gether. Some of them recommended repndiation; some of them 
recommended the scaling of the debt ; and they finally, through the 
instigation and by the suggestion of the chamlier of commerce, sub- 
mitted a bill to be acted upon by the Legislature scaling the debt 
down to sixty cents, so that, although this somewhat questionable 
exj)edient has been entered into and adopted by a republican Legis- 
lature, it was done at the request of and in tlie interest of the demo- 
crats, and they must not take exception to it. 

Mr. CONKLING. How is it with people out of the State, credit- 
ors ; are they to take exception to it ? 

Mr. WEST. No ; they had better take sixty cents, because if the 
democrats get into powqr they Avill not get a cent. [Laughter.] 
Ho\^' tliat action was viewed by the chamber of commerce, a demo- 
cratic institution, I will show. 

Mr. Saiiilidge offered a resoUitioriof thanks to the Legislature, comnienrtiugthem 
for passing tlie fimding hill ami the evident intention shown toward measiu-es in 
the iiiti rest of loform. 

Mr. Oglcsl 1 y said such a resolution ought to pass. The ohamher had advocated the 
measure, and 11 was iliie to tlic Lc^islaliirc to thank tlu-iii lor their action. * ■■ * 

The Legislature hail acted iiinre I'aAdralily towaid the. lioudliohlers than toward 
us. If they had made it .">() i)ei' eiiit. it would liave Ix'eu au even thing: as it was 
they gave them 10 per cent, the advantage. The Chattanooga hondhohlers were 
the only ones who complained. 



20 

So the chamber of commerce wanted the debt of the State cut down 
to fifty ceuts on the dollar, and the republican Legislature said " no ; 
we think we can pay sixty, and Ave Avill make it sixty." Noat, sir, 
I know Avhat the sentiment of the peo]>le of that State is in retjardto 
that measure. I know that it meets almost uniA^ersal approval there, 
and Avhere it is disapproA^ed it is by those who, if they hadthepoAver, 
would relicA^e themseh'^es of what they consider a terrible and unjust 
incubus, and Avould repudiate cA^ery dollar of it. 

Mr. I'resident I Avant now to speak of the condition of business 
aftairs in Ncav Orleans. I want to give my convictions that the in- 
terruption to business in Louisiana, and especially in New Orleans, is 
not mainly due to political causes. I can remember the time when 
every pound of goods almost that was consumed Avest of the Allegha- 
nies, and the exception was so rare that the remark is justifiable — 
" cA^ery pound " Avas transmitted to that region by Avay of Ncav Orleans. 
The first time that eA^er I raised my hand to earn my own liAT.ng I 
did it on the DelaAvare KiA-er, in loading Aa'c hundred barrels of flour 
to go by the Avay of New Orleans to the city of Saint Louis in 1838. 
Whole ship-loads would go to that city of goods bought in New 
York and Philadelphia and Baltimore and Boston, for Saint Louis, 
Louisville, Memphis, aud Cincinnati, and whole steamboat-loads 
would come down AA^ith produce that is now transmitted by raikoad, 
by the transcontinental lines of commuiiication ; so that in the mere 
matter of forwarding in NeAV Orleans the great supplies to the West 
and the great products of the West sent back to us we had a large 
and industrious community engaged. 

Furthermore, we had a market there for Avestern merchants. They 
used to resort there. We had our palatial dry-goods stores, our ex- 
tensiA'e hardAA^are stores, our extensiA'c boot and shoe trade, now gone 
to a great extent. But AA^hy gone ? From political causes ? Not alto- 
gether. At the outbreak of the Avar, or shortly before it, the raikoad 
lines Avere just about perfecting a communication across the continent, 
and that means of communication, the direct resort of merchants to 
NeAV York and the large cities of the East, competed materially 
first Avith our lines of transportation, and next with our resources 
of supply. NcAV Orleans was already beginning to feel that the Mis- 
sissi])pi had more moutlis than one, and that she did not sit the queen 
of (unpire at the moutli of the great river. So it Avas. The Avar came 
on, closing up the mouth of the Mississippi Ei ver, closing up the dry-- 
goods trade, the grocery trade, the boot a.ndshoe trade, and the hard- 
ware trade, paralyzing the South and electrifying the North ; and 
when business Avas resumed there, at the close'of the Avar, Ave found 
that our customers had all gone Nortli. Our lines of communication 
Avere brolcen up. And we did more tlian that, Mr. President; we dis- 
couraged northern capital from coming among us by refusing to con- 
sort socially Avith any man Avho dift'ered politically with the majoi-ity 
of the Avliite people there. These are some of the causes to which tiio 
decay of business in New Orleans is attributable. I feel them and I 
know them. 

I saAvthat city years ago Avhen it Avas n martbusy Avith all the ener- 
gies of connnerce, now to a degree paralyzed and' its ])roperty lying 
vacant and seeking for tenants throngli tlie bigotry, in a great nieas- 
ure, and the i)rejudiccs of her people. 

Again, th(>, debt of the city wo are taxed with as a great abuse; 
that is radical or i'e])ublican dereliction again. Sir, aa'c never had a 
repMl)lican administration in tliat city that did not diminish the debt, 
anil when avc have had democratic administrations there the people 



21 

have almost besought the repiihlicaus to take the goveruiuent out of 
their liaiids that they might even save the very paviug-stoues from 
l)eing sold out of the streets. 

I have shown that the evils under which Louisiana svificrs are not 
altogether due to political causes, and for a 11 political mismanagement 
tiie opponents of the republican party in thnt State are quite as much 
responsible as that party itself; arid I have shown that if Congress 
has any duty to Y)erform in the piemises it is the duty of ascertain- 
ing who is the legal governor of Louisiana ; and before I conclude 
let me just say a few words in reply to the braggart boast that were 
it not for the Army of the United States the government of Mr. Kel- 
logg could not 1)6 sustained a moment in that State. 

Sir, I do not with any zest want to recall to the Senate the out- 
rages that have l)een perpetrated there ; Init I ask the Senate and I 
ask the country, in view of the innumerable lives that have been 
sacrificed there since 1866, whether four hundred and seventy-six 
troops ani any too many to preserve tranquillity and to repress out- 
rage and crime in that State ? Are they any too many to execute 
the laws — the mere revenue laws of the United States? And .suppose 
tb.^y are kept there for the purpose of pres*Tving tranquillity, suppo.se 
that if the J' were taken away the Kellogg government would not 
stand, why would it not stand? Su-, the Kellogg government will 
stand. It will stand forever, or republican government will stand 
as long as the people in that State are of their present mode of 
thinking; until you invite a war of races and ami the negro there. I 
tell Senators that 90 per cent, of the lepublican i)artyin my State are 
colored people. Can wo arm ihem to defend themselves again,st the 
minority, the whites? And a Senator on tliis floor brmgs in a bill 
to remit Louisiana to a state of civil war ! No, sir ; the jieople there 
are your wards. You have made them so Ytj your enactments ; and it 
is due to them that you should protect them. But if the men who 
oppose .the governmen t of Mr. Kel logg will meet us on the result of a 
fair election, we will meet them on that issue, but some of us — and 
they know it — are debarred from taking arms in our hands. 

Now, Mr. President, does the bill of the Senator fiom Wisconsin 
meet this case at all ? Is there any ground for it ? Can Congress 
interfere ? And would not every mau who should give his dispassion- 
ate judgment and reflection to this case be satisfied, as I am, that Mr. 
Kellogg is the legitimate choice of the people, and should be left 
there to exercise the powers conferred by the people ? 

I am obliged to the Senate for their attention. 

o W 



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